Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer/Kyle Hall Oats B So Good Remix [Hyperdub]

Finally it’s landed, ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ first emerged sometime last year, I first heard it in Oneman’s Generation Bass mix on Radio One and it stuck in my head right away. Since then every set that it’s graced its stood out, no one quite sounds like Darkstar. The twisted melodic 8-bit vocoder garage sound of last years ‘Need You’ on Hyperdub turned a lot of heads inside and outside the scene they even got props from Radiohead who let them re-interpret ‘Videotape’ for the Mary Anne Hobbs Wild Angel Compilation. This 12” also features the talents of Kyle Hall a young producer from Detroit who like his mentor Omar-S makes a raw no nonsense house in the tradition of many Detroit producers before.

The original is a chiming, rolling, bass-pulsing garage joint with some serious digital soul. Apparently it came about when one half of Darkstar tried to make their computer sing and spent so much time with it that they may as well have been seeing each other. The tracks full of melodic 8-bit sprinkles, smeared synth sounds that come out sounding like a deeply twisted accordion of sorts, and an almost anthemic yet subdued melancholic feel. There is a beating heart and soul to this production, when the breakdown melts its way in there is some real emotion. Darkstar make songs that just so happen to work in the club just as well as they do elsewhere. It’s probably a contender for track of the year if such award existed.

Kyle Hall’s Oats B So Good Remix twists the original into a tracky deep Detroit number, all punchy kicks and dubbed out chimes, there is a blissed out hypnotic feel with the synth lines being morphed into gentle pads rather than smeared squiggles. The warm digital p-funk bass really makes this track as does the g-funk bendy synths and when all the elements are in full effect there is an almost psychedelic air to it. House is in good hands with Kyle Hall and his ilk.

This 12” is essential and bridges the gap nicely between the 5 years of Hyperdub compilation and the full album Darkstar have in the works, which is pencilled in for release sometime next year and bound to get them a lot of attention. But for now savour ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ in all its digital soul splendour.

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http://www.myspace.com/darkstar001

http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit